Back in the 1970's, I don't remember the subject of apostates being harped upon too much. I had heard of them being mentioned occasionally, but never gave too much thought to the subject.
In the fall of 1978, I was in Irving TX at the KH in the back "secondary" part of the Hall, (there was a partition between the main auditorium and the back), where we were having our Tuesday Book Study. The elder who usually conducted was not able to be there that night so he asked a younger "brother" to fill in for him. This younger "brother" was probably in his mid to late 30's and seemed to be a bit "peculiar"(how peculiar do you have to be to be labeled as peculiar by a bunch of Jehovahs Witnesses?)
Well, I was the reader for the night, so I was sitting in a chair right beside this "peculiar brother", let's just call him Brother P. I guess there were about 20 to 25 people in attendance that night, remember this is 3 years after 1975. About 10 to 15 minutes into the study, Brother P began to expound on the subject in the book, getting away from the actual content. Then he pointedly said that Jehovahs spirit does not work upon the individual JW's but only upon the Faithful and Discreet slave. We could only benefit from Jehovahs spirit by staying close to the F&DS.
Well, that set off quite a heated argument as some of the "brothers" actually stood up and telling him he was full of ----! (Now, actually, in hind sight, what he was saying was TRUE! That is what is taught). But these "brothers", and one "brother" in particular, Brother S, were now engaged in a full blown argument, I thought it was about to break into fisticuffs!
Brother S slammed his book down on the floor, screaming "You can't sit there and tell me that Jehovahs spirit doesn't work directly with me!!" then stormed out the door!
I was just sitting there not knowing what to do, but after Brother S left I just looked over to Brother P and asked, "You want me to go ahead and read the paragraph now?"
The meeting came to a premature end that night. Later I spoke with the elder who normally conducted the study. He said that he had already spoke with Brother P and that Brother P apologized, feeling that everyone was actually trying to say the same thing, there was just a big misunderstanding. I told him what I saw and that there was no misunderstanding, but I was told, "Yes it was, now drop it".